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‘We will coup whoever we want!’: the unbearable hubris of Musk and the billionaire tech bros
(www.theguardian.com)
this post was submitted on 25 Nov 2023
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politics
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I suspect there’s something that happens psychologically that few—if any—of us understand when you reach the levels of wealth these men have. When your bank accounts have more in them than the capital of entire nations, you are not simply rich, you own a significant portion of the world’s wealth. The decisions you make with that kind of money affect thousands, millions, or even billions of people. In a financial sense, you really have reached the level of “demigod.” So, is it any surprise these people start acting like it? We see fame go to celebrities’ heads all the time; why wouldn’t this?
I suspect also that these positions—those of visionaries that, intentionally or unintentionally, put profit ahead of societal benefit attract certain types of personalities, and it wouldn’t surprise me at all if it attracted those with narcissistic qualities. Sociopaths make up around 1% of the general population, but if you look only at business CEOs, they make up about 5% of that population. So that may be a factor too, but I still think the contextual factors play a greater role.
There’s an unofficial diagnosis (and I can’t stress that enough: it’s not in the DSM or ICD10, and I can’t attest to its legitimacy at all as I know of no actual research about it) used by some who have treated celebrities and other famous, hyper-successful people: situationally acquired narcissism. This diagnosis alleges that a person has acquired narcissistic traits into their personality by virtue of being treated like a superior by sycophants and manipulators around them enough that they have unwittingly internalized all that praise and support, and now genuinely believe they deserve to be treated that way because they really are better than the rest of us.
All that being said, I’m still struck by the fact that these people have experienced something radically different than most (extreme wealth), and thus it’s probably a bit hard for any of us to truly understand them. I’m not making excuses for them, just reflecting on how we might not be so immune ourselves to whatever psychological effects being that wealthy and influential has on a person.
“Eating the rich” is probably the wrong idea; we have to prevent people from becoming that rich in the first place, because it’s not good for them or society.